1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a traveling road surface detection apparatus and a traveling road surface detection method.
2. Description of Related Art
US Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0071240 describes an apparatus that detects a traveling road surface. This apparatus acquires a parallax image, in which parallax information is associated with each pixel, by the use of images respectively obtained from right and left cameras, identifies a road surface area on the basis of the pieces of parallax information of the parallax image, and performs coordinate transformation of the parallax image onto a grid plan map, thus detecting a traveling road surface.
However, at the time of coordinate transformation from the parallax image onto the plan map, a continuous road surface area in the parallax image may be discontinuous areas on the grid plan map because of, for example, the difference between the eye point of the parallax image and the eye point of the plan map. In this case, the apparatus described in US Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0071240 erroneously detects the continuous traveling road surface as a traveling road surface including multiple gaps or divided multiple traveling road surfaces. In this technical field, a traveling road surface detection apparatus and a traveling road surface detection method that are able to improve a decrease in the accuracy of detecting a traveling road surface are desired.